Press brakes and box brakes are used in metal forming and shaping. A press brake is a relatively large machine having an upper platen that is arranged to be moved upwardly and downwardly relative to a lower platen. A punch is normally held to the movable upper platen, and a die is normally held on the lower platen. Hence, when the upper platen moves relative to the lower platen, the punch moves upwardly and downwardly relative to the die. These cooperative punch and die sets are used for a variety of metal forming operations, such as bending, punching, providing detents and recesses, and the like.
A box brake is functionally similar to a press brake. However, the box brake is typically hand operated, whereas the press brake is normally powered hydraulically. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the only functional difference between a box brake and a press brake is the physical size of the brake and the motive power to move the punch relative to the die in metal shaping operations.
In either case, a business must normally stock in inventory a large number of punches and dies, since these are largely tailored to the particular part being formed. Such tooling is expensive to manufacture, and can be difficult to store and maintain. In some cases, a piece of tooling will be cannibalized for use in subsequent similar operations. To the extent that the tool that the punch or die has been modified, it is no longer available to do its original function. This further complicates the problem of storing punches and dies for use in such operations.
Accordingly, it would be generally desirable to provide improved punches and dies that can be selectively assembled to do a particular job, and then broken down into individual component parts for subsequent reassembly for a sequential job.